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NowThis News App Review

Review Date: November, 12

Software

Being responsible grownups living busy lives and using the advanced technology Apple have been nice enough to give us, it is our responsibility to read the news and keep up with what is going on in the world so we can complain accordingly when a public figure does something we do not like. But with so much news happening every day and it can be difficult to know where to start and what we should focus our attention on. Fortunately the App Store is swimming with news apps to make our current affairs knowledge that little bit more extensive and if you are looking for a more enjoyable way to go about this then NowThis News for the Pad may just be the one for you. It is free from the App Store now.

NowThis News has been developed by former executives of the excellent Huffington Post Ken Lerer and Eric Hippeau so straight away the guarantee of quality is stamped all over it. But even if you are unfamiliar with the popular news site, the quality of this app speaks for itself. NowThis News provides its users with original videos covering all the latest news and every topic is included, from politics to, of course, technology. Originally starting life as a BuzzFeed channel, the app has now made it to the iPad and it works like a charm.

The moment you start it up you are taken to the home page with an extensive collection of videos. These are all arranged categorically and range from the humorous to the serious, but the overall tone of the app is light-hearted. Navigation is a simple matter of gesturing and all the videos are presented clearly with a large headline. The videos themselves come in various forms and one moment you could be watching quick minute-long summaries before moving onto more in-depth reports. In addition to being informative a lot of the app is more focused on making the experience more enjoyable and there are a lot of more satirical and irreverent videos that tackle various stories from unusual angles.

From the outside it could appear to be a very silly app to some, and to an extent they would be right, but it gets away with it and the videos are well enough informed for it to be taken seriously as a news source. The facts are all there and it is certainly serious when it needs to be but there is also a lot of humour reminiscent of The Daily Show’s sharp satire. It also updates on a daily basis so you can keep up-to-date with all the current news stories.

Whether you view it as a strength or weakness depends on how you like your news presented but the app relies on videos only and there are no articles to read. But if that’s what you want then it would be hard to find it done better than it has been here. Fun and informative, this is a great way to keep up with the news.